In the competitive world of global business in the 21st century, executives at all levels need to develop a good appreciation of basic financial reports, as well as the fundamentals of business valuation and the creation of shareholder value.

Many middle and senior managers, who are experts in their own technical or business field or business field, are often given positions of given greater responsibility where understanding and talking the language of finance becomes a significant part of their job.

In too many cases, their training is inadequate, and they often make serious errors of judgment as a result of their lack of financial skills.

The Institute of Financial Consultants of Canada's Finance for Non-Finance Executives program allows executives to quickly absorb the basics of financial accounting, to build a good understanding of financial reporting, and to develop a good foundation in business valuation.

Course Objectives:

• Financial analysis techniques used to interpret financial information
• Financial management techniques used in running a business

Who should attend?

• Accountant
• General Managers
• Business Development Professionals
• Technical Professionals
• Any manager with non-financial background looking to learn the fundamentals of finance

Certificate of Completion

Upon completion of this program, you'll receive a prestigious CERTIFICATE IN FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT awarded by the Philippine Chapter of Institute of Financial Consultants Canada, a recognition of your accomplishment, skills, and knowledge learned from this course.

Course Agenda

Day 1
Understanding the financial Accounting

Module One
The Accounting Process- From transactions to financial information

• Developing an understanding of the sources of financial information
• Gaining an insight into accounting systems, terminology and concepts
• Examining why the timing of a transaction is so important to the finance function
  • The Entity Concept- sole proprietorship, partnerships, companies, trust, JV's
  • The Accounting records: General or Nominal Ledger & Trial balance
  • Debits and Credits demystified
  • Income vs. expenditure, assets vs. liabilities, capital vs. revenue expenditures
  • P&L account vs. balance sheet: Categorization and their interrelationships
  • Accounting concepts and the accounting rule book: Accruals, prudence, substance over form, true and fir, materiality

Module Two
The driving forces behind financial information

• Overview of the accountants role and the content of the annual report
• Understanding the role of the finance function and how the information you provide is used
• Knowing where to find useful information
• An introduction to the Balanced Scorecard
  • The users of financial information and meeting their different needs: the finance function, types of accountants, financial vs. management accounting and the treasury function
  • Annual financial statements: why they are produced, contents, what you should look for and what is not revealed

Exercise: Applying the accounting concepts

Module Three
Analyzing and interpreting financial information

• Discovering the language of finance
• Learning what a set of accounts reveals about a company's current situation, profitability and future prospects
• Determining how to effectively use all the available information
• Understanding why and how figures can be manipulated

Topics discussed:

• Learning the jargon and recognizing what is revealed in the financial press
• How does the international dimension to accounting relate to you?
• Employing analytical review and ratio analysis:
  • Profitability (return on capital employed, profit margin and non-standard performance measures)
  • Efficiency (asset/ stock turnover, debtor/creditor days)
  • Investment (interest/ dividend cover, earning per share, dividend yield)
  • Gearing
  • Liquidity (current ratios, working capital, cash cycles)

Exercises: Analyzing and interpreting an annual report

Module Four
Cash flow and Cash Management

• Understanding why and how cash is king
• Focusing on ways a business manages this most important resource
• Highlighting the importance of cash flow in analysis and forecasting
  • Cash vs. profit: why profit does not tell the full story and the importance of cash
  • Examining how cash flow statements indicate the stability, adaptability and long-term potential of a company
  • Utilizing cash flow forecast as a planning tool
  • How the treasury manages cash

Exercises: Identifying cash movements to predict future cash flows

Day 2
Understanding financial Management

Module One
Planning and Budgetary Control

• Breaking down barriers between management accounting and operations departments
• Determining why budgets play a key role are not simply an annual chore
• Integrating budget with strategy
• Introducing budgets within your organization

Topics discussed:

• Purposes of budget: the link between the strategic plan and the company culture
  • Budget as motivators
• Tailoring your priorities to match your company's wider strategic objectives
• Setting realistic goals you can apply t your areas of responsibility
  • How your roles relates to the budget cycles
  • Key budgeting techniques
  • When, why and how you should use zero/ priority based budgets
  • Post- budgeting review: variance analysis- how and why it is performed
  • Understanding the difference between budgets and cash flows and how they are relate to one another

Exercises: "Budgeting- The Big Picture": How you can make budgeting more efficient and improve on existing practices

Module Two
Essential Tools or effective business decisions

• Demystifying management accounting
• Introduction to key costing techniques
  • Overview of costing principles
  • Understanding the difference between direct and indirect costs
  • Overheads: allocation, appointments, and absorption
  • Activity Based Costing
  • Break-Even analysis and contribution analysis
  • Apply the Pareto Principle

Exercise: Determining accurate cost per unit for effective decision making

Module Three
Fundamental of finance

• The time value of money
• Estimating Cash Flows
• Sensitivity analysis ad Variance Analysis
  • Understand the essential tools for financial management
  • Understanding the trade off between risk and return
  • How to apply these tools to optimize outcome
  • What drives assets values
  • Understand the limitations behind valuation models

Exercise: Fundamental tools applied

Module Four
Project Appraisal - How to make a business case

• Fundamental tools of investment appraisal
• Apply and work wit these tools to maximum effect in the workplace
• Systematic vs. non- systematic risk
• Cost of capital and WACC- how these are determined
  • Return on capital employed: why it is used? What it tell us and its limitations
  • Payback period: the problems of short-termism in investment appraisal
  • Discounted cash flow techniques: the vital importance of net present value
  • Sensitivity analysis: how sensitive are key decisions to potential changes in circumstances?

Exercise: Evaluating the investment decision